Europeanizing Civil Society: How the EU Shapes Civil Society Organizations, by R.Sanchez Salgado (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, ISBN 9781137355409); xviii+259pp., £ 65.00 hb.

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-212
Author(s):  
Markus Thiel
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The Eu

Mapping the substance of the EU’s civil society support in Central Asia: From neo-liberal to state-led civil society

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Axyonova ◽  
Fabienne Bossuyt
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Program Implementation ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Internal Governance ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Implementation Level ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
The Eu

Over the years, civil society empowerment has become an integral part of the European Union’s (EU) external and internal governance as a way to advance democracy and enhance citizen participation. While there has been increasing scholarly attention to the instruments and impact of the EU’s civil society support, so far there has been little research on the question what kind of civil society the EU actually promotes. This article intends to fill this gap by examining the substance of the EU’s civil society support in post- Soviet Central Asia, a region where various forms of civil society organizations (CSOs) exist. The findings reveal a differentiation between civil society types promoted in EU strategic documents and those that are supported in practice. While at the strategic planning level the EU seeks to strengthen civil society broadly construed, at the program implementation level the (neo-) liberal CSOs are the main beneficiaries. At the same time, the EU customizes its civil society assistance depending on the realities on the ground and at times finds itself empowering state-led civil society, while communal groups rarely benefit from the EU assistance schemes. This has severe implications for the advancement of citizen participation, considering that the actual grass-root initiatives are largely excluded from the EU assistance.

scholarly journals In the Shadow of Public Opinion: The European Parliament, Civil Society Organizations, and the Politicization of Trilogues

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Greenwood ◽  
Christilla Roederer-Rynning
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Informal Institution ◽  
Preliminary Examination ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Law Making ◽  
The Eu

This article examines the relations between the European Parliament (EP) and civil society organizations (CSOs) in the EU’s legislative process. It focuses specifically on legislative trilogues, an informal institution bringing together the representatives of the EP, Council, and Commission in a secluded setting to conclude legislative agreements. Trilogues have become the modus operandi and an absolutely pivotal part of the EU law-making process: they are where the deals are made. While secluded decision-making offers plenty of opportunities for EU institutions to depoliticize law-making, we argue that trilogues have become politicized, partly from the relationship between the EP and CSOs. We flesh out this argument on the basis of insights from the politicization and the historical institutionalist literatures, advance two ideal types of trilogue politics, and explore these types on the basis of a preliminary examination of a comprehensive interview material.

scholarly journals Can EU Civil Society Elites Burst the Brussels Bubble? Civil Society Leaders’ Career Trajectories

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayeon Lindellee ◽  
Roberto Scaramuzzino
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Career Trajectories ◽  
Revolving Doors ◽  
The Eu

The Brussels-based civil society organizations (CSOs) have been conceived by the EU to act as a bridge between the bureaucratic elites and the citizens of Europe. The institutionalized presence of the major EU-based CSOs has, however, called their legitimacy into question, as exemplified by notions such as ‘revolving doors’ implying homogeneous social, educational, and professional backgrounds shared by both EU officials and CSO leaders. This article therefore asks the following questions: To what extent do the leaders of EU-based CSOs merely reproduce the types of capital that mirror those of the political elites in the so-called ‘Brussels bubble’? To what extent do the CSO leaders bring in other sets of capital and forms of recognition that are independent of the Brussels game? How can we explain differences in the salience of EU capital found across policy areas, types of leadership positions, and types of organizations? Empirically, this article qualitatively analyzes the career trajectories of 17 leaders of EU-based peak CSOs that are active in social and environmental policy areas. Despite the highly integrated and institutionalized characteristics shared by all organizations, we find diversity in the composition of the leaders in terms of the extent to which their career trajectories are embedded in the EU arena.

scholarly journals The Advocacy of Feelings: Emotions in EU-Based Civil Society Organizations’ Strategies

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 103-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Sanchez Salgado
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Advocacy Strategies ◽  
Rhetorical Appeals ◽  
Fear Mongering ◽  
The Eu

European Union (EU)-based Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are usually pictured as well-established professionalized actors basing their advocacy strategies on the provision of expertise. Does the focus on expertise imply the removal of emotions and feelings from political communication? Following the emotion turn in social movement and collective action studies, this article investigates how and why EU-based CSOs use emotions in their advocacy strategies. The article shows first how CSOs use rhetorical appeals to emotions and rhetorical appeals to reason in their communication. Secondly, the focus is directed to emotion-inspired advocacy strategies, namely blaming and shaming, fear-mongering and boosting. The choice of rhetorical appeals and strategies is mainly explained by three different inter-related factors: the logics of influence, the logics of membership and media logics. Empirical data is drawn from a content analysis of press releases and policy documents of environmental (climate change) and human rights (refugee crisis) CSOs active at the EU level and from semi-structured interviews with key CSO representatives.

scholarly journals Civil Society Organizations’ Participation in the EU and Its Challenges for Democratic Representation

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolle Zeegers
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
System Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Member States ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
The Eu

Online consultations and the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) are tools that have been put into place by the European Union (EU) in order to increase the participation of citizens and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) in its politics and policy making. The current CSO representation at the system level of the EU is claimed to be biased in favor of the interests of economic producers and CSOs coming from old member states. The central question of this article is whether these tools help make participation more representative of the diversity of societal groups within the EU. The concept of ‘actor representativeness’ as well as ‘discourse representativeness’ will be applied in order to answer this question.

scholarly journals Formation of National Positions on EU Legislative Proposals in Slovenia: What Role for Civil Society Organizations?

2020 ◽  
pp. 88-104
Author(s):  
Damjan Lajh ◽  
Meta Novak
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Current System ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Legislative Proposals ◽  
National Perspective ◽  
The Eu

This article considers the EU policymaking process from the national perspective, emphasizing the involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the process of formulating national positions prior to negotiations in the Council of the EU. Its scope is limited to the stagist model of policy analysis, focusing on the policy formulation stage and 20 of the most salient EU legislative proposals on the EU agenda between 2008 and 2010. It is argued that Slovenia seems to neglect the expertise and information held by CSOs during the process of forming national positions. The current system for coordinating EU affairs anticipates only a narrow role for CSOs. The national position is typically formed at a lower bureaucratic level and based on the European Commission’s proposal. While national officials recognize the benefits of including CSOs in the whole process, they are afraid of greater work, more bureaucratic processes, and corruption

scholarly journals Civil Society under the Treaty of Lisbon: Relationship between National Public Benefit Organizations and European Union Policy?

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia C.R.M. Versteegh
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Treaty Of Lisbon ◽  
Public Benefit ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

The active involvement of European citizens became a new form of democracy in the Treaty of Lisbon of 2009 by the introduction of a whole new chapter dedicated to this purpose. There is an article that obligates the Commission to give serious consideration to the demands of one million citizens from a significant number of Member States. The treaty also provides for a better role of NGOs such as foundations and associations. However, there are uncertainties concerning the definition and the nature of the concept of civil society of which NGOs may be regarded as typical. The European Union gives as leading principle of civil society the concept of voluntariness. Currently, the legal typology of NGOs in the European Union is determined by national laws of the Member State. The present forms of NGOs show great differences regarding formal requirements. There is a variety of legal forms available in EU Member States for public benefit organizations as typical civil society organizations. In the concept of European Union governance there are different concepts about which role civil society could or ought to play in Europe’s governance structure. One of these concepts is that the European Union cooperates with the national civil society institutions through partnership agreements. However, the European Union provides no indication of ways to measure whether an organization can be considered as a public benefit organization. Also, the supervising competences in the EU Member States are different. As a result of these the participatory democracy in the EU does not reflect the power of Europe’s civil society.

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